Elderly Immigrants Face Loss Of Benefits

One look at 91-year-old Pasha Zhurovitskya's lined and weathered face and the gradual stoop of her shoulders reveals her years of hard work.

She was married and widowed, raised a family and was gainfully employed for 45 years. In her extreme old age, Zhurovitskya expected her material needs would be met.

But, like 22,000 other Illinois residents who will lose federal Supplemental Security Income benefits on Aug. 22, she has two strikes against her. She worked in another country, suffering political and religious hardships that led to her becoming a refugee in the United States. And the very age and infirmity that makes her eligible for SSI also makes it harder for her to complete the naturalization process.

Under welfare reform legislation signed last summer by President Clinton, legal residents who have not become American citizens by Aug. 22 will no longer be eligible for federal food stamps. And they will be cut off from SSI payments, which average $425 per month for poor people who are elderly, blind or disabled.

Non-citizens who live in Illinois are receiving $100 million per year in SSI benefits, according to Pamela Seubert, director of government programs for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. Another 39,000 stand to lose $30 million annually in federal food stamp assistance.

Most immigrants will be cut off immediately. Those who qualify for refuge or asylum from political, economic or religious persecution may receive benefits for five years from the date they enter the United States--which federal lawmakers figured as enough time for them to obtain citizenship.

The problem for Zhurovitskya, her fellow refugees from the former Soviet Union and other immigrants is that they cannot apply for citizenship until they have been legally living in this country for four years and nine months. And the naturalization process in Chicago, at its best, takes about six months to complete.

In his 1997 budget proposal, Clinton recommends increasing that grace period to seven years.

Others already have exhausted their five-year grace period. Some came to America 50 years ago and have lived productive, tax-paying lives. But they never became citizens--out of nostalgia for their former countries, because of a language barrier or simply for never seeing the need or the rush.

Now, they have become involved in partisan politics, a federal budget crunch and miles of red tape. They are the inadvertent victims of immigration laws designed to keep criminals out of the country and illegal immigrants off the tax rolls. They are stuck in the middle of reforms originally intended to save money by shifting people from welfare to work, when they have already lived out their productive years.

Many are turning to local, non-profit ethnic and neighborhood groups for help. More than 400 Russian-speaking refugees from the former Soviet Union attended two recent informational programs sponsored by the Jewish Federation, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Social Security Administration. The latest was held Thursday at the Russian Senior Center of the Bernard Horowitz Jewish Community Center, in the basement of Congregation Ezra-Habonim, at 2620 W. Touhy Ave. in Chicago.

"Some people said they don't believe this country can kick out the elderly onto the streets," said Alla Spector, a naturalized Soviet immigrant who works with the Council for Jewish Elderly in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Having lived in the former Soviet Union under a socialist system, these immigrants count on government benefits as they would a pension. They don't see it as a handout, according to Donna Pezzuto of the CJE.

"They understand that it is not anti-Semitism" as in the former Soviet Union, said Russian Senior Center Director Anna Gurevich. "But they are disappointed because they thought their days here would at least be stable."

Though SSI is not enough to live on, it is the cornerstone of several government programs upon which these immigrants rely. Those who don't live with grown children--some of whom are themselves past retirement age--may take advantage of subsidized housing benefits. Many rely on their "small check" from the government to buy medicine and on food stamps and utility payment assistance programs.

The Jewish Federation, together with the Latino Institute, will release a study this week outlining just how much these legal immigrants receive from the government and what they would need to maintain their standard of living after the August cuts. It also will consider their possible elimination from state Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs in next year's Illinois budget.

Of course, much of their problem would go away if these legal residents became citizens--eligible, then, for all kinds of welfare assistance. But for the more senior and the disabled, it's not so simple.

It is more difficult for them to learn English and to study U.S. history and government. The only exemptions from the citizenship tests are for those older than 50 who have been in the United States for at least 20 years; those older than 55 who have been here for at least 15 years; and those who are disabled, according to still-undefined criteria.

After overcoming those hurdles, they face a one-on-one interview with Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. But the process is intimidating, according to Gurevich, even more so now with so much government help and assistance at stake.

"When they know it's their daily bread, they will be more nervous and will fail," she said.